1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that searches for information stored in a storage device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a searching mechanism is known in which a character is input by a user as a search condition to search for information stored in a storage device.
For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-060868, an information processing apparatus has addresses information registered therein in advance as destinations of data, so that a user of the apparatus can search and use the registered address information. In the apparatus, the destination name that contains a character input by the user is identified, so that address information corresponding to the identified destination name is output as a search result.
Alternatively, to search for a document out of a storage device having a large number of documents registered therein, files each having a file name that contains a character input by a user may be identified, so that the files are output as a search result.
A refine search is also known as a search method for information stored in a storage device. In the refine search, a first search is performed under a first search condition a user specified, and if the user further specifies a second search condition, a second search is performed under the second search condition based on the result for the first condition. The second search is performed for more accurate (refined) result when the amount of information obtained as the result for the first criteria is too large.
Nowadays, a refine search mechanism is known, in which a refine search is performed whenever a character is input by a user. For example, when a user inputs the character “a”, a first search is performed for information of character strings starting with “a”, and then when a user inputs the character “b”, a second search is performed for information of character strings starting with “ab”.
The repetition of refine searches for every input of character specified by a user may lead to the following situation.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-060868 discusses a data processing apparatus, in which when a search is performed for information stored in an external storage device that is connected to the apparatus via network, a request for an search execution and a result of the search are transmitted through the network at every search. When network traffic is heavy, it takes long time before the result returns.
When it takes long time to perform a search based on “a”, a user may input the character “b” before the search result based on “a” is returned to the user. In this case, the on-going search based on “a” is cancelled, and a fresh search based on “ab” is started, which makes the processes of the search based on “a” a waste.
As one solution to cope with the above situation, an approach can be proposed, in which after the character “a” is input, a search is started in response to an instruction from a user for search execution. If a user wants to input “b” based on a search result for “a”, the user can give an instruction for a search execution after inputting “a”. In contrast, if a user wants to execute a search based on “ab” without a prior search based on “a”, the user can give an instruction for a search execution after inputting “a” and “b”. This eliminates the above described waste.
When a search is performed for information stored in a storage area in the self apparatus, however, a user can have a response for a search more quickly as compared to the case of a search for information stored in an external storage area. This is because the former search does not need any transmission/receipt of information via a network. In a search showing a quick response, even if the search is automatically started upon an input of “a”, the search is unlikely to be cancelled in the middle because a result of the search based on “a” can be obtained immediately.
If, however, the above approach, in which an instruction for search execution is waited for after an input of a character by a user, is applied to the case with a search for information that is stored in a storage area of a self apparatus, an operational issue may occur. More specifically, a user may be required to input a character and instruct a search execution in two steps, which may be troublesome for a user.
Thus conventionally, searches have been performed in the same manner irrespective of the conditions for the searches (i.e., the location of a storage device storing the information to be searched for, or a length of a response time from a storage device), which has caused the above described inconvenience.